


Continuance

by Lady Lecter (RoNask)



Series: Us Against the World [1]
Category: Hannibal Lecter Tetralogy - Thomas Harris
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2019-02-23 16:22:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13193919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoNask/pseuds/Lady%20Lecter
Summary: Hannibal has a confession to make and Clarice learns more than she expected from it.





	Continuance

“I’m afraid”  
The confession is a disturbance in the air that was, at first, filled with nothing but music. It makes her look up from her book, she is a little confused at first and it shows on her face. He takes a moment before turning his gaze away from the harpsichord keyboard to her, she sits on the divan with a book on her hands and confusion in her expression.  
He smiles slightly amused at the sight.  
“Of what?” she finally asks, her tone holds more concern than he would have liked to cause. He is never afraid of anything, much like her, the prospect can be disturbing.  
“Of the future” he makes a pause, looking back at the instrument he decided to stop playing. He can see her tensing in the corner of his eye, she is sitting straight, waiting for something, something bad. Hannibal Lecter isn’t afraid of the future, he can see the patterns and work around them. However, there is one subject they don’t talk about… “Your future”  
She is tense now, he holds her undivided attention. “Why?”  
“You’ll be alone… At least, at first” finally he puts it to words.  
She swallows down hard, looking away from him for a moment. “Have you been hiding something from me, Hannibal?” he can sense her anger rising, the idea of betrayal setting in her mind. Not the betrayal most would have expected, a slightly nobler one.  
“I’m not dying if that is what you are worried about” he relaxes along with her when she lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding back. “I’m not ill, my dear”  
She opens her mouth a couple of times before she can decide what should be said first. “What is it then?”  
“I’m not ill, but eventually-”  
“And we will deal with it” she cuts him off.  
He faces her. “There is no hiding from it”  
Her face is touched by anger, but she swallows it down, nods and finally she questions: “What do you have in mind?”  
“As foolish as it may sound, Clarice, I think you should have a child”  
Silence. A moment of silent tension fills the air.  
“Company,” he says before she can express one of the many thoughts going through her head. “Someone who will look after you”  
She wants to fight him with every fiber of her being, yet she holds back. He’s right, as usual. Starling decides for thoughtful silence instead of foolish sound. For a while, she does little more than thinking.  
“You never thought about it,” he says.  
“Not as something planned, no. It is not us, it is too…”  
“Common?”  
“Yes”  
He pauses for a moment. “There is something I want to show you. We’ll make a small trip soon, it will help us put things in perspective”  
She lets out a sigh and nods. She learned long ago that trusting him was often a good thing, he did need an advice here and there, but mostly he could handle the two of them without a single problem.  
Them. Maybe that was the problem. It had always been just the two of them, just the two of them against the world, they needed little else. What happened when they were no longer two? What about the worst case scenario? What would happen then?  
She doesn’t think about, she already did it before. She just never considered being more than the two of them, not as a plan. As an accident, yes, but never as a plan.  
She waits then, let him make his case. She could, at least, listen. After all, she was afraid too.

 

The door opens easily, easier than she would have expected.  
The place is clean, there is little light though.  
She never thought she would be here.  
“When did you buy it?” she asked.  
“It was a passing thought, a musing turned real. The first place where anyone would look and the last”  
“A scared animal runs back home”  
Clarice studied the castle carefully, this place belonged in a part of his Memory Palace she believed she would never see.  
“We can have some servants, make it look like a home again. It can be a new beginning”  
“We can have horses,” she said smiling, his own smile followed hers.  
“We had one, his name was Cesar, last time I saw him I was eighteen. A good loyal horse with a terror of whips and the habit of getting into the kitchen without permission. Our chef would have him running from there in a moment”  
Clarice faced him, a smile on her lips. There was much more to his tale than she could put to words, the mere prospect of him sharing a memory like that was a lot. She knew how hard it could be.  
“This place is yours,” he said looking around. “You’re legally a countess”  
“Now that is an interesting title: Count Hannibal Lecter M.D.”  
“Eighth”  
“Hannibal Lecter VIII? Count Hannibal Lecter VIII, it does have a nice sound to it”  
He smiles.  
“You thought it through, haven’t you?” she questions. “How long do we own this place?”  
“Legally, it returned to my family years ago. I have been visiting it for a few months”  
“What about home? The mansion?”  
“We keep it, for safety reasons, as we keep the other properties. This place--”  
“Is where you want to die, where you want to be buried”  
His eyes meet hers. She has no doubt of her words.  
“You could have asked me, you know. Even before, I would have done it. Family matters, it always does” Clarice walks closer to him, stopping when there is nowhere else to go. “Come, let’s see the rest of the castle”


End file.
